Sunday, April 13, 2008

We attempted to move poles twice this last week, firstly the large forklift got stuck, then the rollback got stuck next to it, and when the ground dried out a day or two we had another go and we pulled the rollback out , but the forklift would not run, after an hour I worked out the fuel pump was not pumping, I had a pump I use as an emergency for my track car, and once wired and plumbed the forklift ran immediately , but the sun was headed down , so we left it and went to work on the backhoe finishing replacing the hoses - after about 6 or 8 hours work it was working again - this was over three days though.

Another dreary, rain threatening Saturday dawned and scared off many of the members , but Tony came out early as promised and got a bundle of work done. As he says he has such a long way to come , he might as well make it worthwhile.

We tackled the rest of the briar's on the field and also cleaned up around the trees in front of the property , a task that will need doing at least Monthly. The hop rhizomes that were well above soil level in the pots were taken from the Greenhouse and planting was begun.

I decided to limit it to 3 or 4 varieties to start with, the reason behind this is that they will all be kept separate in different areas of the farm, so that mulching would be easier is a long run.

The most prolific were the Nugget's , so I started with them and planted 12 rhizomes in Circle "B" , making a note of each plant and it's origin (where we bought it and which time - Alternative Beverage bought theirs from two sources) ,

if there were any notes made when I potted them, I also wrote these down - like "broken rootstock"

Sterling were next and 6 plants were put out, then 6 Centennial followed and lastly 6 Mt Hood were planted . The quantity planted was purely the number that were big enough to plant out

While I took a break to watch my son play his first Baseball game , Tony started making stakes for the hope ropes. Barry arrived just after lunch and Tony headed back to help at home as promised. Barry and I started laying paper and mulch for weed suppression.

William arrived around 2pm gave us all a flash of leg as he arrived in his swim suite (long story , but split alcohol and his normal work clothes were involved ). Barry and William continued to make stakes until all the rebar was cut up, approx 130 odd stakes.

So we continued the afternoon laying paper and mulch. In total 30 rhizomes were planted , papered and mulched , I started watering but the well is giving problems , and quit again after only 8 minutes - will have to be looked at this week.Rain is forecast tonight and tomorrow, and we can only hope it actually happens as the new plants will need some water.

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The Battleground Brewers Guild Hop Project

This is a Co-Op of BBG members who wanted to either grow hops at home or had interest in fresh hops for their home brewing use. As my blog evolved we decided to run a separate Hops farm Blog http://bbghops.blogspot.com/The early information on the BBG Hops project is at the beginning of this blog (Pls look at Archive)

The BBG is a Home Brewing club in the Triad region of North Carolina , in zone 7b, formed to promote all aspects of Home Beer brewing. We meet monthly and more info can be found on our website www.battlegroundbrewers.com

The Idea of this project is to plant varieties that have been proven or are supposed to grow well in US Ag zone 7 . "Proven" also means anecdotal evidence from members or other beer lovers in the region. We eventually chose 8 varieties.

Each member is a partner in the enterprise, being expected to share equally financially, labor and well as yield in the end.

The land was leased for $1 to us for the project, and equipment use and well water also provided by the land owner.